Portable towers employ a mast for positioning lights, speakers, signs or the like in a raised position in a quick and efficient setup. For instance, portable towers can be used to provide enhanced communication by extending the height of an antenna. Another more common example is the use of a portable tower to place lights in an elevated position for illumination of special events, road and bridge construction, emergency and disaster relief, and general construction sites.
Portable light towers include a mast, preferably telescoping, which upwardly extends from a base to support a bank of lights overhead to temporarily illuminate an area in low lighting conditions. Typically the area to be illuminated is devoid of electrical power wherein the portable light towers have their own source of power such as batteries or an engine/generator system. In other instance, the area to be illuminated is devoid of light after dusk where sunlight is not available wherein the self-powered portable light tower provides sufficient illumination to sites such as building construction, highway construction, carnivals, outdoor sporting and recreational activities, and the like. Portable light towers are well known in the art and typically include wheels for ease in transporting. Prior art disclosures include portable lighting systems exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,439,467; 3,495,364; 4,181,929; 5,806,963; 6,517,225; 6,805,462; 7,621,650; 8,303,143; and 8,439,534.
Presently existing light towers lack compact storage features which can affect shipping as well as storage. Existing light towers are typically trailer mounted and towed to a deployment site. Trailer mounted light towers are transported to a jobsite either by towing behind a vehicle, or by placement on a flatbed where they are offloaded at the jobsite. For instance, if a carnival needs ten light towers then it may need ten vehicles and associated personnel to transport the ten light towers individually and separately. Similarly, road construction sites may require placement of several light towers along a length of road, thus each of the light towers must be transported to the site by a separate vehicle. Placing multiple light towers on a single large common trailer, such as a flatbed, is limited to the length and width of the flatbed. Furthermore, placing multiple light towers mounted on a flatbed or on a single large common trailer is limited since all known prior art light towers have no provision for nesting or stacking. Existing light towers lack compact storage features which can cause problems in shipping as well as storage, what is needed in the industry is a stackable tower trailer constructed and arranged to allow multiple trailers to be stacked providing benefits in both shipping and storage, thereby reducing personnel, shipping, and storage costs.
Thus what is needed in the industry is a portable light tower having a housing constructed and arranged to allow both nesting and stacking to benefit both storage and shipping of light towers.